


Unpopular Opinion

by Alemantele



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, disgruntled citizens do exist, maybe some people are just tired of the stuff that happens in Night Vale, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 02:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1762595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alemantele/pseuds/Alemantele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But honestly, do you think that life's been any worse in Night Vale after Strex moved in than before it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unpopular Opinion

Hey, hey, you, listen up.

Yeah, I’m talking to you—the one over there waving that flag and throwing those rocks. I can see the orange triangle you’ve blotted out with red paint and the way you pitch those stones at the yellow helicopters circling over us all. I can see your scowl.

Who d’you think you are, messing with Strex like that?

Don’t’cha know what Strex’s been doing for us all?

I really don’t get you folks, sometimes, why you want to protest and drive everything to do with Strex away. I really don’t. What do you gain by throwing those rocks of yours? What happens when you finally think you’ve got them but the helicopter starts falling and falling and suddenly you’re stuck right in the path of a hunk of smoking metal? What happens when that flag you’re waving around suddenly blows into your face and you’re _blinded_ to the truth of the things?

Here’s what I think, and I know it’s probably not the most popular opinion right now: Maybe Strex is doing us all a little good.

Maybe all y’all think that Strex is ruining everything and destroying Night Vale, or some other nonsense like that. Maybe Strex shouldn’t be outlawing bloodstone circles and stopping people from practicing their rituals if they’d like. Maybe Strex shouldn’t be stopping people from saying what they wanna on the radio.

But honestly, do you think that life's been any worse in Night Vale after Strex moved in than before it? 

Strex lifted that ban on writing utensils because it’d be more efficient if we all could write stuff down, and for the first time in my life, I could keep track of my thoughts as they came to me. Sometimes my thoughts get all scattered, and it’s such a blessing to have a notebook with me to write it all down. Plus, I heard that the scientists find recording information so much easier when they don’t have to improvise things to write with.

Strex is making Night Vale a lot of money too—renovating things all over the place and making the infrastructure so much better. Remember that awful time we had when we tried to set up our own subway station? Just look at Desert Bluffs and how advanced everything is. Night Vale could be like that. Life could be easier.

Look at how awful our mayoral system was. Pamela Winchell? Now that lady is _crazy_. Batshit, in my opinion. Hiram McDaniels is _literally a five headed dragon,_ and I’m not even quite sure how the heck the Faceless Old Woman is running. Are there many of her? Or does she just live everywhere at once? I know I’ve woken up to have my bedroom rearranged before, and my friends have too, so I really don’t know what’s going on.

What about the lack of transparency there, anyways? No one knows anything about the campaigns. No one knows anything about anything, even if Pamela Winchell decides to hold press releases at any damn time she feels like it. Ridiculous, it all is.

And, see, just cuz Strex maybe made some people disappear with their weird orange juice and maybe their helicopters worry some people, but how was that any worse than what we had before?

How many people disappeared when the dog park opened up and swallowed a bunch of people during poetry week? How many people were absorbed into the whispering forest? How many people were killed cuz the Sheriff’s Secret Police couldn’t owe up to that teranadon attack a couple of years ago?

And look, I know Strex messed around with the bowling alley, but there was a miniature army lined up under there for goodness sake—why are you all upset by that?

And don’t even get me started on the helicopters. Look, the helicopters were always there, okay? The Sheriff’s Secret Police never hid that.

Haven’t you thought about the people who randomly disappear for no reason under the Sheriff’s Secret Police’s rule? My sister got taken one day and she never came back. I never did find out what happened to her, just that we weren’t allowed to speak her name anymore.

I know a guy who got taken by Strex one day, and that was just because he got perfect on some fancy math test and Strex wanted to hire him. Of course, he didn’t have a say in the matter, but at least he has a job now and isn’t dead or buried or transported to another dimension.

How bout when the weird helicopters with all the falcons or whatever on them—no one said anything when they took all the children.

So why is everybody getting all worked up over Strex?

I just don’t get it.

It’s not everyone, actually, that wasn’t the right word. It’s not like this small group of very loud but very strange people who somehow think that Strex is inherently evil and we should all be rid of it and I’m pretty sure that that very group is led by the crazy girl who killed a bunch of librarians the other day.

I mean. _Geez,_ kid, I know you don’t like people teaching you about books, but did you really have to _kill_ the librarian? They can’t be that bad. I mean, I’ve never met one, but I hear they’re not _that_ terrifying unless you get too close. Maybe I’m wrong though—but that’s beside the point.

The crazy radio announcer’s the worst of it though. I don’t know why his show runs so late at night or why he thinks that he can speak for us all when he talks about Strex like that. Cuz I sure as heck don’t think the things he does.

Damn, this is why Strex is starting to pull their weight around here. It’s because of people like the crazy librarian girl and the wackjob radio announcer who can’t appreciate a good job when they see it.

Y’know what, I can tell from the look on your face that you’re not gonna listen to me anymore. Or maybe it’s because you’re listening to the radio broadcast both you and I hear and are dying to get to the canyon.

That’s right. I can read Morse. How else did you think I passed messages between me and my girl in school? With writing notes? Oh, that’s right, I couldn’t because the Sheriff’s Secret Police decided to fucking  _outlaw writing utensils._

But that’s okay, I’ll stop talking now.

Go have fun protesting, I suppose.

I still think it’s stupid, and if you find Strex knocking at the door to your little revolution, well, never time chose some less obvious method of sending out that message.

Bye now—unlike some people, I’m actually going to work now and be useful to the community at large.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, y'never know, right? Right?


End file.
